John Tudor Smyth

John Tudor Smyth was a chest physician in Exeter, Devon, and then a consultant physician in the department of geriatric medicine at Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. He was born in London, the son of James Lawrence Smyth, an administrator, and Florence Ellen Smyth née Tudor, the daughter of a farmer. He was educated in Sutton and then went on to study engineering at University College London, graduating in 1943 with first class honours.

From 1943 to 1947 he was an engineering officer in the RAF, serving in the UK in bomber command and the Middle East.

Following his demobilisation, he decided to study medicine and returned to University College London, gaining the McGrath scholarship in surgery. He qualified in 1953. He was a house physician, house surgeon, resident medical officer and medical registrar at University College Hospital.

In 1958 he emigrated to Australia, where he was initially a medical officer at Wooroloo Sanatorium in Western Australia. He then became an assistant physician superintendent at Perth Chest Hospital. From 1961 to 1962 he was an assistant in the department of medicine at the University of Western Australia. In 1963 he was appointed as a physician in the thoracic unit at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (formerly Perth Chest Hospital).

In 1967 he returned to the UK, where he was a consultant chest physician at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, at the Heavitree site.

After ten years in England, Smyth went back to Western Australia, as a physician in the department of geriatric medicine at Royal Perth Hospital.

He wrote papers on, among other topics, pulmonary disease caused by mycobacteria, Mantoux testing for tuberculosis and farmers’ lung in Devon.

As an engineering student he had boxed, and he played soccer and cricket whilst at medical school.

In 1957 he married Jennifer Catherine Hall, the daughter of toolmaker. They had three sons and a daughter.